Remembering Ray

Mr. Ray Charles was a very organized man, well versed in jazz, rock, soul, gospel and country — he was just one boy you couldn't tie down. When he made country music, a lot of people didn't like it at first, but he made us love it. He sounded like Nat "King" Cole one time, then he sounded like Charles Brown one time, then he went and sounded like Ray Charles. When he played "Georgia On My Mind," well, you can't beat that.

One thing I liked about Brother Ray is that he got his own plane. That made him last longer. That motivated me, and I started renting them after that, and pretty soon I bought me a little jet. See, if you've got a plane, you're not wearing your legs out. Ray was always positive about what he was doing, and I admire him most for that. I tell you one thing: He could see a lot better than those with eyes.

Ahmet Ertegun
Co-founder and chairman, Atlantic Records

Ray Charles had a refinement of spirit that prevented him from ever singing or playing a false note. He was always, always right. And he was an incredible influence on all the rock & roll artists: on the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Van Morrison, Joe Cocker, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck. They were all Ray Charles' friends.

He had a great patience in getting things done correctly in the studio. And he had also a great humility; he had a great deal of concern for everybody else working with him. He was truly a gentle person, but he was a strict leader and a strict disciplinarian. He has been a person from whom I've learned a great deal about how to make a record properly.

Ray Charles is a man who suffered a great deal in his lifetime. You feel a lot of that, in his playing and his singing. But there is also a lot of joy in his playing and singing. And he's brought an incredible amount of joy to millions of people all over the world.

David "Fathead" Newman
Saxophonist

In the beginning, when I was touring with Ray, we had to deal with segregation. There were signs for colored and white everywhere down South. We couldn't stay in white hotels. Ray didn't say much about that; the only thing about it he would rebel against was when we'd stop to get gas. He would be filling up all of our vehicles, and if they wouldn't allow him to use the restroom, he'd tell them to stop pumping the gas right away.

We had some gruesome days playing the theater circuit, places like the Apollo in Harlem and other theaters in D.C. and Chicago. You would start early in the day and you wouldn't finish until around midnight. It was six or seven shows a day. They'd show movies in between some of the shows, but we'd be at the theater all day. This would be in the late Fifties, till about 1960. Backstage we'd play cards, dominoes. Ray and I were very close. I taught him how to play chess, how the pieces moved. From that point on, I was never able to beat him. He had them build him a special chessboard where the pieces had prongs so he could tell where they were located. I asked him once why he could always beat me. He said, "I don't have the distractions that you have." He thought maybe I was looking at girls.

Robbie Robertson

When I was a kid in Toronto, I went to Massey Hall, which is like the Carnegie Hall of Toronto. I was maybe fourteen years old, and I had just gotten the rock & roll bug. I went to see this R&B show where Ray Charles and his band played. They introduced Ray, and at that time they used to introduce him as "Blind Ray Charles." Everybody had been dancing and doing all this big show-business stuff earlier in the show, but when Ray came out there, it got really serious and dark and beautiful. This blue light was hitting him, and the whole thing took me to another place. He sang, and I thought, "That's the best singing I've ever heard in my entire life." And he sang another song, and it was better than the last. It was all too cool. He just played the shit, no messing around, and did it better than anyone else in the world. I'm going through this metamorphosis sitting there. But someone in the crowd is whooping it up, making noises. So Ray Charles says, "If I wasn't blind, I'd come up there and kick your ass." And then he goes into this song "Leave Your Woman Alone" and leans into it with such anger. That's what started me loving Ray Charles.

Years ago, I was in New York staying at the Forest Hotel. A friend of mine and myself met this girl who seemed really, really savvy, and she had some grass. We started hanging out a little, and one day she said, "I have to go over to a studio where Ray Charles is recording." What we didn't know was she was Ray's connection and his sometime lover as well, I think. I went over to the studio with her, and I don't even know what album they were working on. She and Ray went outside to have a discussion for a few minutes about something. They were gone for a while, and the producer was getting impatient. Ray came back in and sat at the piano, kind of daydreaming or something. The producer went over and said something to Ray, and Ray just punched him right in the face. The girl turned to me and said, "We better go." I thought, "I don't know what that was about, but I'm sure Ray was right."